PBS has uploaded a new video featuring Downton Abbey’s Jim Carter (Carson) talking about Maggie Smith, who he had deemed “queen of the doubletake”.
If you’ve already watched the season finale, don’t forget to check out this heartwrenching look back at Mary and Matthew Crawley’s life together.
Also, here’s Carter talking about how Carson should marry Mrs. Hughes.
David Einhorn isn’t the only Applel investor who thinks Apple is doing it wrong. As its stock activity has shown over the past several months, shareholders are worried Apple is losing its way, isn’t innovating enough to compete with challengers like Samsung and isn’t being thoughtful enough about its huge cash pile. And now after plenty of complaining about this, there are signs Apple’s most vocal investors might actually get their way.
One of the top Wall Street analysts covering Apple, Morgan Stanley’s Katy Huberty, had a meeting with Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer on Thursday. And as communicated in a note to her clients afterward, she got the impression Apple is going to make an iPhone that could better appeal to the lower end of the mobile market, and double the existing dividend it’s already offering in an attempt to return some of its $137 billion in cash to shareholders.
On an iPhone mini (via AppleInsider):
That’s why she expects Apple to expand the iPhone lineup, and also to introduce new services that can “unlock significant value” and drive device sales.
She noted that demand for the iPhone 4, Apple’s current low-end handset offering, was surprisingly strong during the December quarter. With a gross margin of 40 percent and a one-third cannibalization rate, she believes a so-called “iPhone mini” would drive incremental revenue and gross profit.
Cook said at an investor conference last week that Apple doesn’t try to hit a particular price point with its products. Referencing the practice of discounting older models, he said the company is ”making moves to or have made moves to make things more affordable” when it comes to the iPhone. It’s not really a confirmation they’re working on a lower-cost iPhone, but it’s not a denial either. And there’s no indication of when such a device could arrive.
On giving investors more money via a larger dividend (via Fortune):
“Our analysis,” [Huberty] writes, “suggests Apple can match the S&P IT sector’s average FCF [free cash flow] payout of 68% if it returns $28B in FY13, implying a 6% total yield. High mix of international cash limited flexibility in the past but raising low-interest debt can help address this issue, in our view.”
Currently Apple offers a 2.3 percent dividend, or $2.65 per share, per quarter. But it’s clearly going to have to do something to fend off the attack from Einhorn — and his unconventional proposal for a class of stock that pays a permanent dividend — and other vocal campaigns for some of that cash. Cook has promised Apple is in “very active discussions” over what to do with its cash. Its annual shareholder meeting is coming up next week, and it seems not unlikely at all that an increase in the dividend would mollify most investors and perhaps give the stock a needed bump upward.
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Over the past few days, a number of high profile brands and people have had their Twitter accounts hacked. Burger King was the first to fall victim to the hacks with Donald Trump’s personal account following a day later. Now the latest victim is connected with the group responsible for the hacks.
BBC News reports that the popular Anonymous Central Twitter (@Anon_Central) was hacked by a rival hacker group known as Rustle League. The Twitter feed was forced down, and now the account is starting from scratch.
After being hacked we fought back, and we live on
After being forced down, we must return to page one, thanks to everyone who has already followed
While this was going on, most of the dramas was taking place on the fellow @Anon_Central Twitter. Some were saying that a fight between rival hacker collectives was wonderfully entertaining, but most were asking the two groups to work together instead of fighting amongst themselves.
Both @Anon_CentralNF and @RustleLeague says they work for saving internet. Then why not work togather instead of a fight ? #confused
Stop this shit and fight together against the corrupt government @jmnanonymous@Anon_CentralNF@RustleLeague
Of course, some people find the idea of Anonymous getting hacked to be scary in and of itself:
if @Anon_CentralNF can get hacked… that means none of us are safe!! #FML
It should be noted that not all hackers are related to Anonymous, and some really hate Anonymous. In this case, it seems that Rustle League was in it for the “lulz.” There might be cases in the future, however, where rival hacker collectives take things to serious new levels by posting personal information on those involved in each group. For hackers veiled in anonymity, that would be the worst possible thing.
Jack Swagger, the WWE star who’s real name is Jacob Hager, was arrested earlier this week in Gulfport, Mississippi on DUI charges.
According to a TMZ report on the incident, the wrestler was arrested after leaving a taping of WWE Smackdown that was filmed at the Missippi Coast Coliseum. Hager was caught speeding (55 in a 45 mph zone) and was determined by an officer to be impaired. A search of the car allegedly turned up marijuana, and Hager has now been charged with DUI, marijuana possession, and speeding. The DUI charge is not alcohol-related.
The local Biloxi/Gulfport newspaper, the Sun Herald, is now reporting that Hager will have to appear in court to face the DUI charge, though the possession and speeding charges can be paid by mail. Though the charges are misdemeanors, Hager could have to pay fines and could lose his driving license for 90 days.
Hager, as Jack Swagger, is scheduled to face wrestler Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania 29 for the World Heavyweight Championship belt on April 7. This arrest and probable court appearance put that match into question.
Google launched Chrome 25 beta last month, which included support for voice commands via the Web Speech API. Now, voice recognition has come to the stable release.
Developers can use the API to to integrate speech recognition capabilities into their web apps, so Chrome users can benefit from the feature.
Google has a demo here, if you want to see how it works.
The release also disables silent extension installs in Chrome for Windows.
“This keeps Chrome fast and safe by ensuring that you consent to every extension that’s installed on your computer,” says Google software engineer Glen Shires.
The new features will come with the auto-update as the release is rolled out.
Amber Rose has seemed very pregnant for a very long time to many of her fans, so it was with a huge welcome that she and fiance Wiz Khalifa announced on Twitter that their baby boy had come into the world.
Sebastian “The Bash” Taylor Thomaz was born on Thursday, March 21st and immediately charmed his parents, who tweeted about their precious gift and received well-wishes from all manner of celebrity friends.
Rose, who garnered fame as a model of unconventional beauty with her closely cropped, platinum hair, reportedly told her fiance that after giving birth, she wanted some very specific things.
“My wife said she just wants a Jack & coke, a cheesesteak, and a cigarette,” he said. “That’s why I’m marrying that woman!”
Happy Birthday to our baby boy Sebastian “The Bash” Taylor Thomaz! I’m so happy u guys I fell in love all over again!
— Amber Rose (@DaRealAmberRose) February 22, 2013
Welcome 2 fatherhood mistercap!!! Congrats 2 u n @darealamberrose on ur new son – he got the same Cday as… instagr.am/p/WBOclnv9JY/
— Snoop Dogg (@SnoopDogg) February 22, 2013
Congratulations to my fam mistercap and @darealamberrose !!! Welcome baby Bash! You’re born in an… instagr.am/p/WBFYA2BMws/
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 22, 2013
Best daddy ever…. Up with the baby so Muva can go back to sleep
— Amber Rose (@DaRealAmberRose) February 22, 2013
Daddy time instagr.am/p/WAZ-2tndi-/
— Wiz Khalifa (@wizkhalifa) February 21, 2013
Centaur Gaming has acquired Indiana Grand Casino and Indiana Downs Racetrack. Canadian mid-market buyout firm Clairvest Group invested $8.4 million in support of the Indiana Grand acquisition in the form of unsecured term loans with stapled warrants.
PRESS RELEASE
Clairvest Group Inc. announced today that an investment partner, Centaur Gaming, has completed the acquisition of Indiana Grand Casino and Indiana Downs Racetrack (“Indiana Grand”). Clairvest invested US$8.4 million in support of the Indiana Grand acquisition. The investment was made in the form of unsecured term loans with stapled warrants.
As part of this transaction, Centaur Gaming completed a financing which resulted in full repayment of its first and second lien loans. Upon completion of the financing Clairvest received US$30.8 million such that on a net basis Clairvest received net proceeds of US$22.4 million.
Upon completion of this transaction, Clairvest’s investment in Centaur Gaming is approximately US$14 million, compared to the US$36 million invested as at December 31, 2012.
In addition to Indiana Grand, Centaur Gaming is the owner and operator of Hoosier Park Racing and Casino located 35 miles northeast of Indianapolis in Anderson. The Indiana Grand property is located southeast of the city in Shelbyville, Indiana.
“We expect the combination of the two properties to result in material cost efficiencies and an enhanced gaming service offering to customers. We are now working closely with management at both properties to ensure the successful execution of the combined operational integration plan. The acquisition of Indiana Grand enhances Centaur’s strategic value within the U.S gaming landscape,” said Michael Wagman, Managing Director of Clairvest.
About Clairvest
Clairvest Group Inc. is a private equity management firm which invests its own capital, and that of third parties through the Clairvest Equity Partners limited partnerships, in businesses that have the potential to generate superior returns. In addition to providing financing, Clairvest contributes strategic expertise and execution ability to support the growth and development of its investee partners. Clairvest realizes value through investment returns and the eventual disposition of its investments.
The post PE-Backed Centaur Gaming Acquires Indiana Grand Casino, Indiana Downs Racetrack appeared first on peHUB.
HOUSTON — IER founder and CEO Robert Bradley latest Political Energy column at Forbes.com, Peak Oil Will Be Fully Discredited When Peak Government Is Realized, traces oil-supply scares to false notions “of a world of static technology and a known, fixed supply,” as well as government policies inhibiting oil and gas production that fool the neo-Malthusians time and again:
Peak Oil Will Be Full Discredited When Peak Government Is Realized
By Robert Bradley Jr. — 2/19/2013
President Obama recently nominated Sally Jewell to head the Department of Interior. Her bona fides include growing a business — Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) — to nearly $2 billion in revenue last year. But in her new job, the question is whether Secretary Jewell will grow America’s vast, untapped domestic energy resources.
Jewell is now at the gulf between what is and what could be. The Interior Department is responsible for oil and natural gas drilling off the U.S. coast – which is to say, the agency is wholly responsible for the complete absence of new drilling off the U.S. coast.
Consider ExxonMobil’s $14 billion plan to develop one of the largest oil fields in the North Atlantic. That drilling will be off Canada’s Newfoundland. But the Hebron oil field is believed to extend southward into U.S. waters with its billion-barrel potential. Unfortunately, the United States won’t see a drop of it — unless Secretary Jewell and others in the Obama hierarchy open our coast. Simple permission, not taxpayer funds or new regulations, is all that is required.
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Your company has just developed an amazing new product. Years of development, energy, and, of course, money have gone into it. Hype and excitement behind the launch pushes it into high gear. But it falls apart at the seams at the last moment, leaving your company on the brink of disaster. What do you do next?
Having observed management teams for decades as a mutual fund and portfolio manager, I have watched numerous companies vanish after a disastrous launch of a product or service. Very few find a way to avert the fall; even fewer can identify the potential threat early and rally the troops in a new direction. A charismatic CEO with the willingness to accept a setback, move in a different direction, and persevere to achieve this new and difficult vision can succeed where most fail.
One CEO who had the ability to turn around a disaster was Frank Baldino of Cephalon. While this story is not new, it represents the perfect example of a phenomenal corporate turnaround and the skills required to engineer such a recovery.
Cephalon’s IPO was in 1991, part of the second wave of biotechnology companies to sell shares to the public. The focus of the firm was development of a treatment for ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, and its leader was Dr. Frank Baldino, an intense, brilliant, and charming scientist. Cephalon’s lead molecule, Myotrophin, was a growth factor, intended to promote neurons that ALS destroys. Nearly all the assets of the company were targeted on this drug program. The stock climbed in anticipation of the clinical results, but unfortunately, the data were not strong enough for the FDA. Realizing that a rejection from the FDA was possible, Baldino sharply scaled back the Mytrophin program, containing the risk but maintaining an option on the possibility of success. The FDA voted to reject Myotrophin in 1997.
Even with Baldino’s proactive efforts, this was a large blow to the company. When disaster strikes, a forward-thinking CEO needs a back-up plan. Baldino already had one, albeit on a small scale, while Myotrophin was still on a fast track. In 1993, he purchased the rights to a well-tested drug for narcolepsy, Provigil, from a French company named Labon. Without shifting the spotlight from the company’s lead program, Baldino quietly moved resources to a second track. Following the FDA decision, Provigil took center stage. As Lisa Burns, CEO of Burns McClellan, long-time publicist for Cephalon, told me in a recent phone interview, “All the energy that Frank had applied to Myotrophin, he turned to Provigil.”
Baldino moved aggressively to bring Provigil to market. He convinced his board of directors and his management team that this was the right path, and he began to seriously promote Provigil within the company and to outside investors. While it might have appeared that Cephalon was a one-trick pony, the intentional overlap with another equally viable drug allowed the firm to maintain its momentum and created another road to success — one that the company needed. Persuasiveness about a new direction is critical for the CEO who is trying to save a sinking company. In this case it worked: The drug was approved at the end of December 1998.
Despite this, skeptics dismissed Provigil as a limited drug with no more than $100 million sales potential. Baldino had other ideas. Baldino sought to convince thought leaders of the therapeutic benefit, prove the drug worked, and then market it to the needy community. Provigil improved sleep apnea and wakefulness in shift workers with sleep-related problems. According to Burns, “Frank’s big, bold, bravado personality, combined with his abilities as a great scientist, helped build a previously undefined market for the drug that he brought to the U.S.” As a result, the sales force could market the drug to a larger market, including doctors treating airline pilots, truck drivers, military personnel, and factory workers who needed to stay awake at strange hours.
But Baldino didn’t stop there. As a shrewd manager, Baldino leveraged the company’s sales force by adding related products to its core franchise. He acquired two other drugs for the marketing team to sell to the neurologists whom they were already detailing. He developed the next generation form of Provigil prior to the patent expiration. By 2010, sales exceeded $2B.
From a failed product to a stock that rose to a value of over $5 billion in much of the 2006-2010 period, Frank Baldino had rebuilt a decimated company, creating meaningful wealth for his shareholders and many of his employees. Baldino passed away in 2010, but his actions offer an example for CEOs today. Managers who scrap all plans after one failure may be forfeiting tremendous rewards. A shift in direction and dedication to a new — if not challenging — vision can be a tough route to take. But with the right commitment and creative thinking, it could be the way to save your company from the brink.
As if to prove Amazon isn’t the only price chopper in cloud, Rackspace on Friday cut prices on a key cloud service and is starting to roll out tiered pricing for other services.
First off, it sliced the cost of its Content Delivery Network (CDN) services by a third from $0.18 to $0.12 per GB. The new, lower price matches Amazon CloudFront CDN on-demand per-GB pricing for the first 10 TB per month of out-bound data transfer. CloudFront prices drop after that. Amazon does not publish its reserved pricing for CloudFront. CDNs route traffic around the web to put it closer to prospective users thus reducing latency and page load times.
Secondly, the new tiered price structure will first apply to Cloud Files Object storage with volume discounts ranging from $0.10 per GB per month for up to 1 TB, then falling to $0.075 per month or lower when storage surpasses a petabyte (see chart.)
For comparison, AWS S3 storage prices are lower, but, as Rackspace likes to note, Amazon also charges for PUT, POST, LIST, HEAD, GET and DELETE requests and Rackspace does not.
This move shows that Rackspace, with its new OpenStack-based cloud services, is bound and determined to compete with the biggest of the big cloud players. In the past the company has seemed reluctant to compete on price alone, instead invoking its “maniacal support” mantra to justify a premium.”
“Rackspace has always responded to AWS price cuts with statements like ‘but we have great service.’ Looks like the market is demanding the cuts,” said David Linthicum, CTO and founder of consultancy Blue Mountain Labs and a GigaOM PRO analyst.
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Edward Gorey is one of the most influential artists and writers of our time. His birthday also happens to be today. His birthday was celebrated by Google Australia yesterday, but now those of us on the other side of the International Date Line get to celebrate.
Edward Gorey was born on February 22, 1925, and he died on April 15, 2000 at the age of 75. Over the course of his life, he published over 100 books featuring his distinct art style that could best be classified as gothic, but he himself labeled his style as “literary nonsense.”
Today’s Google Doodle isn’t interactive, but it does a great job of copping Gorey’s distinctive style. Google’s Knowledge Graph is in full force as well. Interestingly enough, the first person listed under the “People also search for” section is Tim Burton. The director’s early work, especially Edward Scissorhands, was obviously inspired by Gorey’s work.
If you want to learn more about Gorey, why not take a trip out to his home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. It’s been turned into the Edwary Gorey House Museum. The house will open on April 18, and feature a new exhibit.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has announced that the Smithfield Packing Company is recalling around 38,000 pounds of pork sausage. In a statement, the FSIS said that the meat could contain “small pieces of plastic,” which “likely” come from gloves.
The recalled products are one-pound “chubs” of Gwaltney mild pork sausage roll that have a use-by date of March 12, 2013 and cases of the same type of sausage roll that have a case code of 78533109741.
The meat was packaged on January 11 of this year and have been shipped to 11 states and the District of Columbia. The states are Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas.
Smithfield discovered the contamination after it received two separate complaints from customers. So far, there have been no reported injuries due to the plastic pieces.
Located in Smithfield, Virginia, the Smithfield Packing Company was founded in 1936. It has been shipping pork products since that time and is one of the largest meat companies in the U.S.
Telefonica and NEC are to work together on developing network virtualization technologies, the companies have announced.
The Spanish telco and Japanese vendor have a fair amount of history together, with NEC providing the platform underpinning Telefonica’s small-business software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. Now that relationship is being extended to co-develop software-defined networking (SDN) and network function virtualization (NVF) technologies.
The precise direction of that collaboration is a mystery for now, but here’s the background. Like other carriers, Telefonica is keen to re-engineer its networks to reduce management complexity and allow the rolling-out of new services that can only work across a virtualized, software-centric network. And along with its rivals, Telefonica is involved in a global specification-setting group for this very purpose – after all, interoperability is essential when you’re designing the telecoms networks of the future.
However, when specifications are being set, it helps to be in the driving seat; hence Telefonica’s new partnership with NEC.
“Our idea is to have some kind of standardized solution, not just for Telefonica but for the rest of industry,” Enrique Algaba, Telefonica’s director for network virtualization, told me this morning.
All this plays into an evolving conception of SDN, which sees the technology as applicable to entire telecoms networks, not just to data centers (Ericsson is particularly keen on this interpretation, as it reiterated in a whitepaper yesterday). This already goes beyond the original purpose of network virtualization, but Telefonica appears to be taking the concept even further, all the way to the set-top box.
“We’re thinking these technologies could be applicable to access – also in the fixed line,” Algaba said. “There are some interesting use cases in virtualizing home equipment, to simplify the architecture we have in the home network.
“From the Telefonica point of view, this is something new so we are pushing this in the market. We think we have to be here in order to steer in some way this new approach, in order to have our requirements included.”
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Telecom company Telrad Networks will acquire the broadband wireless access division of Alvarion Ltd. for $6.1 million. Alvarion may also receive certain performance-based milestone payments of up to $6 million.
PRESS RELEASE
Telrad Networks, a leading international provider of telecommunication solutions, today announced that it has agreed to acquire the broadband wireless access (BWA) division of Alvarion(R) Ltd. ALVR +9.62% for $6.1 million. In addition, Alvarion may receive certain performance-based milestone payments of up to $6 million. BWA technology is experiencing rapid growth worldwide because it enables wireless broadband connectivity to meet the need for Internet access in areas with little or no access infrastructure.
“We’re enthusiastic about this acquisition because of the strategic fit between the two businesses and the significant growth potential,” said Ran Bukshpan, CEO, Telrad Networks. “We are committed to an aggressive development roadmap for the BWA division, ensuring a smooth transition to TD-LTE Advanced capabilities for all customers. We are looking forward to providing Alvarion’s impressive customer base with the highest levels of service and support, as we’ve served our telco and enterprise customers for many years. We also extend the warmest welcome to our new employees joining us from Alvarion, and believe that together we can achieve our vision of becoming the world leader in broadband wireless access innovation.”
The flagship product of the group, BreezeCOMPACT, has a unique single-box architecture which provides macro base station performance in a compact, optimized all-outdoor form factor with software radio design, which enables LTE Advanced and a variety of supported frequencies. The BWA division today serves over 250 broadband carriers and Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) worldwide. This new division will be fully integrated into Telrad’s core business, maintaining its current sales, support and development staff.
“Both organizations possess a global presence in the marketplace, and serve the same types of customers across the globe,” continued Bukshpan. “We share a common level of technological know-how that will provide a great deal of synergy as we integrate the BWA division into our company. The market is poised to adopt next-generation wireless technologies and we see BWA as a core growth engine for our company in coming years.”
About Telrad Networks
Telrad Networks provides innovative telecom equipment, solutions and services which facilitate communications between millions of end-users worldwide. Combining technological expertise with a dedication to customer service, Telrad provides provisioning, implementation and management for over 100 leading global telecom operators and major enterprises. Telrad Networks operates in over 30 countries, with regional headquarters in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. Telrad Networks is owned by private equity fund Fortissimo Capital.
About Fortissimo Capital
Fortissimo Capital, headquartered in Israel, is a group of private equity funds with nearly $500 million under management that invests in global technology companies that require capital to expand their business. Fortissimo Capital is a long term investor and seeks to partner with management to facilitate growth and maximize value. Fortissimo is backed by leading financial institutions including insurance companies, banks and pension funds. (www.ffcapital.com)
About Alvarion
Alvarion Ltd. ALVR +9.62% provides optimized wireless broadband solutions addressing the connectivity, coverage and capacity challenges of telecom operators, smart cities, security, and enterprise customers. Our innovative solutions are based on multiple technologies across licensed and unlicensed spectrums.
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Superman and Batman have an interesting dynamic together that’s been explored numerous times in DC fiction over the years. One of the best examples was when Batman and Superman teamed up in World’s Finest to take down a partnership between The Joker and Lex Luthor. Now DC is bringing them back together for a new series.
DC Comics announced this week that it would be starting up a new Batman/Superman comic book series as part of the New 52 reboot that launched last year. The new series will focus on the first meeting between what are arguably DC’s most iconic and popular characters.
First time DC writer Greg Pak will be in charge of the story with Jae Lee handling the art. Marvel fans will know Pak from his work on Incredible Hullk and War Machine. Jae Lee is also a frequent Marvel artist who has worked on series like Fantastic Four and Young Avengers. This will not be Lee’s first time with DC, however, as he did the art for Before Watchmen: Ozymandias last year.
So what’s the new series going to be about? Pak isn’t saying much, but he did tell USA Today that the first meeting between the two heroes will probably not be pleasant:
“What would your reaction be if you saw a guy running around in a bat costume in the dead of night attacking people for the first time? And what would your reaction be if you met an alien who could crush steel in his bare hands for the first time? These guys are going to have very different immediate impressions of each other than we’re used to seeing with these characters.”
As for the art, check out Lee’s sketch of Batman, courtesy of DC Comics:
Starting out as a rookie among veterans, in a matter of months Windows RT has transformed into an exciting and intriguing alternative to established tablet operating systems. The trigger for the frankly unexpected makeover is the jailbreak which allows enthusiasts to run unsigned apps on their Windows RT-based devices — there’s even an automated tool which makes modding a breeze. If you think that is not good enough and you still need or want your old apps, a developer has released a tool that allows legacy programs to run on Windows RT.
The tool, however, does not support every Windows-compatible legacy app known to mankind. It comes with some limitations as resource-hogging, complex, .NET-based, modern, 16-bit and 64-bit apps, among others, cannot run. The reasoning, judging by the developer’s input on the matter, is to deliver a solid user experience across the board without major compromises when running legacy programs.
In its current state, the tool features an installer with a GUI (Graphical User Interface) launcher, “speed” and, considering the manpower behind the project, a decent number of emulated Windows API (Application Programming Interface) functions. The developer plans to expand the number of emulated Windows API functions even further in a future release; at the moment it can be considered work in progress.
As you might imagine, the tool has to be installed on the jailbroken Windows RT and cannot be run on the untouched version of Microsoft’s tablet operating system. Users then have to open the “Launch x86 program” entry from the start menu, browse and select the executable of the legacy program, and just press the OK button to power it up.
The developer says that WinRAR, 3D Pinball “Space Cadet” (without sound), Heroes of Might and Magic 3 (with a 32-bit patch, but no music), the 7Zip benchmark and “lots of tiny simple progs” work using the tool. That said, launching one legacy app from another is as yet unsupported. The developer also plans to add support for all version of Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, Jagged Alliance 2 and uTorrent 2.x and warns that some programs might require specific registry entries in order to open.
Another benefit of jailbreaking Windows RT is the ability to use a third-party app store, similar in concept to Cydia on iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices. One was released in January, but the developer retired it because the source code contained “too many kludge fixes on kludge fixes”. But that will change “soon”.
The same developer released a suite of suite of apps meant to enable running unsigned ARM-compatible apps and legacy programs on Windows RT, that would lay the groundwork towards the release of RTD Store V2. The latter is a “work in progress version” of the former third-party app store, but much simpler and more stable, according to the developer.
Earlier this week, the Respect for Marriage coalition, a pro-gay-marriage partnership between dozens of organizations (such as the AFL-CIO and the ACLU) committed to ending the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), released a short ad titled “Leadership.” The ad featured heavy american symbolism, such as the multiple U.S. flags and a family picnic. The ad also featured quotes that seem to support gay marriage from political figures such as former U.S. General Colin Powell, former Vice President Dick Cheney, President Obama, and former First Lady Laura Bush.
Though all of the clips shown in the ad are from public appearances, it seems that not everyone is happy having their words used to promote marriage equality.
Laura Bush has requested that the organization remove her image and words from the ad. The Dallas Morning News has quoted a Bush family spokesperson as saying that Bush “did not approve of her inclusion in this advertisement.”
The coalition has responded quickly to Bush’s request, and issued a statement to Politico stating their disappointment that she did not want her words in the ad. The organization has instead released a new ad that depicts a former Marine Corporal and his wife speaking about their support for gay marriage, and how their thoughts were shaped by learning the Marine’s brother is gay.
Several publishers have launched digital-first imprints for genre titles — science fiction/fantasy, romance and so on. In these instances, books are published first as ebooks and aren’t released in print unless they take off. Until now, though, we haven’t seen a major publisher launch an e-imprint focused on new literary fiction — more serious fiction of the type that wins awards and gets major reviews.
That appears to be changing with Little, Brown U.K.’s launch of Blackfriars, a digital-only imprint that will focus on new literary fiction and serious nonfiction. The Bookseller reports that the imprint will publish nine to twelve titles a year, and they’ll be eligible for submission to major literary prizes like the Man Booker Prize. The Bookseller notes:
Digital titles are accepted by prizes including the Man Booker Prize and the Women’s Prize for Fiction, with the condition that they are published by “established” houses and made available for sale in print if the title is selected by the judges at the shortlisting or longlisting stage, respectively.
Blackfriars’ first titles will be published in June. Two of them were previously published in the US: The Painted Girls by Cathy Marie Buchanan by Penguin’s Riverhead and Benjamin Anastas’s Too Good to be True: A Memoir by Amazon. According to The Bookseller, the “royalty rates on the titles are largely the same as those on standard combined print and e-deals.” Traditional publishers’ standard royalty on ebooks is 25 percent. (I’ve asked Blackfriars if it is paying advances, and what its ebooks will cost.)
Without the promise of higher royalties, digital-first imprints are not likely to be many authors’ first choice when they consider their publishing options — especially when it comes to literary fiction, which generally has not sold as well in digital formats as genre fiction has. But imprints like Blackfriars could provide a home for books that have had a little trouble taking off, and the books will get additional marketing support from Little, Brown.
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